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Untitled Article
and the repose of the country bury ing-place . No rash hand will be tempted to level the heap . Nature will pay her daily tribute to the hallowed spot The sun will shine upon it every morning ; the dews of heaven will visit it every evening , for ever . Where these influences of nature and religion can be united , as in a country churchyard , it is well . It is no small privilege to the survivors to have such a place to resort to , wh 2 n they pay their tribute of
anection . But the larger proportion of our population must forego one or other of the advantages of a country churchyard : and it seems to be high time to point out to them the desireableness , if not the necessity , of relinquishing their predilections in favour of the old places of sepulture , and of reconciling their minds to the new plan which the increase of numbers will at length oblige us to adopt .
All have heard of the cemetery of ? ere la Chaise . Its beauty , and the deep and tender interest which pervades the place , are universally acknowledged . Why should not every city in England have such a spot in its neighbourhood ? Not , perhaps , as beautiful ; but as interesting , as hallowed ? That there are no valid objections to such a plan , we know ; for it has been adopted with entire success , in two or three instances in this
country . They who have attended funerals in the damp and cheerless churchyards of the city , feel the contrast between such scenes , and the shade of trees , where flowers spring , and the sun sheds his earliest and latest rays . They who have known what it is to be deterred from visiting the grave of a friend by the fear of observation , and who know that in the midst of a city they cannot escape sights and sounds uncongenial with their feelings , can best appreciate the retirement and repose of a country burial-ground , where no eye marks the mourner , no step intrudes on his solitude , and no harsh sounds break in on his meditation .
The burial-grounds of a city are exposed to profanations of various kinds , from which those of the country are free . Notwithstanding ail that is said of the good moral effects of interring the dead in the sight of the living , we are every day shocked with the levity with which places so sacred are regarded . If now and then an old man may go to meditate among the tombs and gather from them that " all is vanity , * how many busy and careless
persons pass by without remembering that they are on consecrated ground ! The man of business hurries on and pursues his calculations , without being reminded that he knows not the measure of his days . The man of learning reflects not , as the tomb-stones meet his eye , that beneath them no knowledge or device is found . The gay and worldly tread the soil so often that they think not of the corruption within it , —a corruption which they must share . The school-boy whistles and plays his pranks as he leaps over the graves , and loses his awe of death as its outward symbols cease to be
mementos to him . The sounds of business , the laugh of mirth , the voice of contention , even the oath and the curse , echo discordantly among the tombs ; and if they reach the ear of the mourner , send a shudder through his frame , and a chill through his soul . In the country these things cannot be . No call of business or pleasure leads the careless through its paths . None enter but those who have an interest in the place itself- —who go to think and to feel . The still , small voice which issues from the grave is there listened to . No careless step profanes the hallowed turf . It is bright with flowers ; the bee gathers sweets , and the butterfly lights upon them . All else is retirement and repose . There is something highly gratifying to the mind in persons of all dene- *
Untitled Article
On Country Burial-Grounds . 231
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1828, page 231, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2559/page/15/
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